About Me

I've written stories ever since I could write, but somewhere along the way I seem to have lost the joy and natural desire to write for me. Churning out stories every other week for my degree course, and forcing non-existent brilliance out of myself has drained my natural spirit. So, I have created myself a blog in an attempt to find a way back to what made me fall in love with writing in the first place. Only you and I will discover if I fail or succeed...

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

In which I Ponder the News

This morning was spent sitting in front of the computer and decorating my nails, because I hadn’t a clue how to come up with a 1000-3000 word long piece of genius for the Writers’ forum contest I intend on entering.[1] I was also trawling through past writing competition entries that had failed even a reply and deciding whether any of them were worthy of a spruce up and re-entry. I fanned my nails dry with my substandard hand held Jägermeister fan.[2] Then I had a breakthrough. I’d just had a look at and dismissed a short story based on something that happened to my Nana during the war. I’d enjoyed moulding my own story from a basic tale. Also, it had been easy. I’d thought my problem was that I had expended all my creativity on my degree, but the real problem is that I’m quite rusty and can’t think of any plots right now. Serious problem? Nope: just steal some storylines from the paper, or anywhere you hear about real stuff happening.

My Special Study last semester had been a dual narrative auto/biography about my mother and my childhoods. Having lived through my own childhood, the parts about me were truthful, but also boring. The chapters about my mother, however were more ‘based on a true story’ than verbatim recollections.[3] There is no shame in using real events as inspiration for a story; established and respected writers do it, and entire careers can be based on writing biographies. Therefore, I am now on the search for a plot to steal and make my own.[4] Beware!

Until next time. Toodle pip xx

[1] I say ‘decorating’ because I wasn’t just painting my nails. I was undercoating, painting artistic patterns and even sticking rhinestones on my nails.

[2] The poor standard of this fan is most likely because it was free from the Fresher’s Fayre in September.

[3] According to my mother they were ‘very creative’, which I took to mean ‘absolutely wrong, but nice to read’.

[4] Disclosure: I say ‘steal’, but I won’t be using any real names or copying any news stories, duh.